The Antichrist will rise again: A new Omen series is headed to TV

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The Wrap reports that Lifetime has given a "straight to series" order of six episodes to executive producer Glen Mazzara's Damien, a sequel/reboot to the classic 1976 horror film The Omen that will air in early 2015.

The series will follow the title character as an adult, when a series of mysterious and supernatural events force him to come to terms with his true identity -- the Antichrist prophesied in the Book of Revelations who will bring about the end of the world.

Lifetime general manager and executive vice president Rob Sharenow said, "We are thrilled to be bringing a contemporary version of The Omen's Damien Thorn back to the screen. Glen Mazzara has re-imagined him as a dark, romantic anti-hero and this fresh take blends complex characters with premium storytelling to make something truly original."

Huge red flags right there: First of all, Damien Thorn is not an anti-hero, he's the Antichrist. Once he figured out who he was in 1978's Damien: Omen II, he pretty much never looked back and pursued the mission his dad sent him on with zeal. He's pure evil in human form.

And that leads us to our second red flag: the word "romantic." Does that mean there will be romance in Damien's life? Will the love of a good woman create a conflict and perhaps make him want to settle down instead of, you know, launch a thousand years of suffering for humanity?

Mazzara was the showrunner on most of season two and all of season three on The Walking Dead, so we know he's capable of some dark stuff. But this take doesn't scream Omen to me, and since it's on Lifetime I also don't imagine we'll be seeing the kind of creatively gruesome deaths (decapitation by sheet of glass, disembowelment by elevator cable, impalement by church lightning rod) that were a hallmark of the film series and a huge influence on later movies like Final Destination.

This show can only end with Damien going full Satanic. Anything else is a copout. Do you think this material can fly as a Lifetime TV series?

Here's a trailer for the third of the original trilogy, The Final Conflict (starring Sam Neill as Damien), that neatly sums up the film series: